Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Revelers take part in SantaCon in New York City, U.S., December 10, 2022. (Photo by David “Dee” Delgado/Reuters)

A rainbow rises over flooded fields after the Rivers Thames and Churn burst their banks, in Cricklade, western England on January 3, 2024, following Storm Henk which brought strong winds and heavy rain across much of the country. (Photo by Adrian Dennis/AFP Photo)

Revelers turn out to support LGBT rights during a Pride rally in Lansing, Michigan, U.S., June 17, 2023. (Photo by Dieu-Nalio Chery/Reuters)

A house along Hoover Beach is covered by ice from high winds and from the waves from Lake Erie, Saturday, February 29, 2020, in Hamburg N.Y. Blowing snow has fallen around the state since Thursday, though the heaviest snowfall was concentrated in largely rural areas east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. (Photo by Jeffrey T. Barnes/AP Photo)

Levi Dinmore, 8, gets a COVID-19 test at a Sameday Health drive-through testing site in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., December 22, 2021. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

Lily Nguyen of Jessop, from Maryland, leaps up in the air as a friend takes her photo in front of cherry blossoms which have reached their peak bloom, along the Tidal Basin, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 21, 2022. (Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)